


Their Princess

by YurikoNeko (AlaxxisSade)



Series: KKM: Someday We Will Get There [10]
Category: Kyou Kara Maou!
Genre: Family Fluff, Father-Daughter Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Original Character-centric, cool female character, hopefully, original child character - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-13
Updated: 2016-04-13
Packaged: 2018-06-02 01:45:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6545467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlaxxisSade/pseuds/YurikoNeko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She doesn't need to be anybody's princess. No, not even his.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Their Princess

**Author's Note:**

> This is all Julie~

This is the story of when Julie was ten.

                Unlike other girls, she never had the princess dream. It was hard to when she was helping to raise one and looked forward to the other coming back with stories of journeys to faraway lands. In fact, if she aspired to be like Greta-neesan, it was to become an adventurer like her, and not a princess.

                That was why she didn’t really understand why some people would call her ‘Your Highness’ sometimes, out of the blue. They said it was because she was the king’s goddaughter, but every time they did that, she would glance around, thinking they were calling Shinri or Kari or maybe Uncle Wolfram, and then everyone would have wasted some precious time clearing up the confusion.

                Mama always said a few seconds could be everything between life and death, so she never felt right wasting even a moment.

                That day when the men from the other country called out to her, though, there was no mistaking who they were aiming for.

                “Those eyes! Are you… Could you be a Weller?”

                She fidgeted uncomfortably at their fervent gazes. When she was out on missions with Mama, she always tried to avoid attracting unnecessary attention. She wasn’t as good as Mama yet, who could tell what attention was good and what was bad for the plan. Mama could be invisible during a mission and attract every eye in the bar when he’s off duty. Julie envied him so. She knew he would bask in the admiration these strange men were showering on her.

                “I… No, I’m not a Weller.” Mama wouldn’t let her take on her father’s last name—unless she chose to herself when she turned sixteen, so she dutifully added, “Not yet, anyway.”

                “Not yet…?” The men glanced at each other, until one of them cleared his throat and asked again, “Then, are you Lord Conrart Weller’s daughter?”

                Mama always said to be wary of strangers and even warier of telling the truth, but she was off-duty, and they said her father’s name. That tended to bring out some weird compulsions in her that Mama always made a fuss of. _You get too honest, and too straight-laced,_ he said. _Too honorable._

                As she nodded, she wondered why Mama said ‘honorable’ like it was a bad thing. At the same time, she thought of how her father would look if she had said no. His eyes, always twinkling silver when he saw her, would surely dim. And besides, they _were_ father and daughter. Their eyes proved it.

                “Then you must be the princess!”

                Princess…? Julie shook her head. “No, that’s Princess Greta, or Kari. Greta-neesan isn’t here now, and if you want to see Kari, you’ll have to—”

                “Oh, we don’t mean the princesses of Shin Makoku. They don’t interest us.”

                That’s only because you haven’t seen Kari, or talked to Greta. Greta-neesan is so smart, it’s like she knows everything, and Kari is so cute, even if she’s been getting a bit naughty…

                Julie argued for them in her mind, but outwardly she clamped her mouth shut and took one step back, away from the men. Her senses were telling her these people weren’t like the others. “I’m not a princess. I am His Majesty’s goddaughter, but that’s only because His Majesty Yuuri is nice to everyone.”

                “We don’t care about the Ma—I mean, that’s not the point here.” One of the men crouched down to her eye-level and tried to take her hand. She whipped it away and leapt another two steps back. His face turned a faint pink under that scraggly beard, but he was just embarrassed, not angry. It kind of made her feel guilty. If he was trying to tempt her, or if his intentions were hostile, he would have shown a bit more spark. Now he just looked like a little boy who got rejected.

                “Princess, I apologize if we scared you, but—”

                “Why do you keep calling me princess?” Her eyes narrowed again, and she remembered. “If it’s because Lord Weller is my father, he’s not a prince anymore, so—”

                “That’s not true! He will always be a prince—no, a king of Dai Shimaron!”

                …Eh?

                “Prin—Young Miss, you didn’t know? He didn’t tell you?”

                Julie thought about what her father talked to her about. Whenever they met, it was usually for sword training, or he and Mama argued again and he would either be ranting or pleading her to talk to Mama for him. Whatever she knew of his past, she heard from Mama or His Majesty, or from hints Uncle Wolfram and Uncle Gwendal left. And Grandma Cheri’s fond stories, but that was mostly of when he was a teenager.

                He made a point never to talk about sad stuff when he was with her. That was how she deduced that his past was sad.

                “Then you don’t know! You don’t know that in your veins runs the blood of Shimaron’s ancient royal family!”

                She was… royalty? Julie stared at her hands. She didn’t feel royal. Did Kari feel anything different?

                And what did being royalty mean? Her eyes twinkled in concentration as she brought to mind everything Mama taught her about Dai Shimaron politics. Is this why Mama never brought her to missions in Dai Shimaron? Because he knew they would recognize her eyes?

                “The Dai Shimaron king... is King Belar, right?” Isn’t he our enemy? No one said as much to her, but his name brought up this tension whenever it was mentioned. As a spy-in-training, she would have to kiss her dream goodbye if she couldn’t sense that much.

                “Of course, of course.” The man talking to her – the style of his fancy clothes proved to her that he was from Dai Shimaron – waved her childish comment off impatiently. “But we—some people believe that it should be your father in that castle, on that throne.”

                Suddenly her blood ran cold. “You want Pa—my father to be your king? Is that why you’re here?”

                “Smart girl.” The Dai Shimaron minister rubbed her hair affectionately, and she resisted the urge to chop his hand off. Keep calm, keep calm… Keep him talking. “We’ve asked and asked, but he wouldn’t leave the Maou. Do you think you could talk to him for us, princess? Then both of you can come live in Dai Shimaron with us. It’s a lot safer there.”

                “That’s not what Mama says.”

                “Your mother… Ah. The half-mazoku spy.” He pursed his lips, then quickly realized his look was one of disapproval. “I-I mean, it’s not like I don’t like your mother—”

                “It’s okay. Plenty of people don’t like Mama.” And he doesn’t care, as long as I like him.

                The man looked relieved. “I see. Well, but isn’t that dangerous for you? I don’t suppose you remember, but oh, the chaos when word got out that Conanshia prince had threatened you! You, our helpless newborn princess! Then he had the nerve to ask us for help!”

                Julie fancied she could hear Ian sneezing into the wok at the bar.

                “And besides, this is no place for you to grow up.” The man’s voice turned gentle in a way that made her frown. “You don’t have maryoku, do you? You inherited your parents’ human blood. You’re human.”

                I’m… I’m what I choose to be. Her gaze hardened. And I choose to be mazoku. It didn’t matter that she didn’t have maryoku. Like both her parents, if her heart called Shin Makoku home, it was good enough for King Yuuri. It was good enough for her friends and family. Even though she did know that half her blood was human, she was vaguely offended to be called human for the first time by these strange men.

                And... these men wanted to take her father away from King Yuuri. They wanted to use her to do it.

                Her hand was on the scabbard of her short sword when someone pulled her away from the man and into his strong arms. Warm, and familiar—though not as familiar as Mama’s.

                “Don’t you dare lay a hand on my daughter.”

                He never used that tone on her, or even around her. He never got angry at her before, so maybe some part of her wondered if he ever got angry. Well, now she knew.

                This Papa was kinda scary, but also kinda cool. She buried her face in his shoulder and wrapped her arms around his neck. He stiffened immediately under her embrace, as though pleasantly surprised and scared senseless at the same time. Doubtless he thought they had done something to her. It made her think maybe she didn’t hug him enough.

                But no, if she got any closer to him, they might really try to use her against him. She shuddered at the thought, and with that he knew that they got to her.

                She didn’t need her superspy-in-training judgment to tell that they wouldn’t be coming back for a while after that.

 

That night, she sat Mama down at the dining table and asked all about it. If she asked, there wasn’t anything Mama wouldn’t tell her. She just had to ask the right questions.

                “…I see.”

                It was as she thought. Her father’s place was by King Yuuri’s side, as it had always been, for as long as she could remember. He tried going somewhere else for a while, and it didn’t go well for anyone, so that was where he had stayed ever since. In fact, it was hard for her to imagine him anywhere else. As for being king…

                “He’d be a horrible king.”

                “Now, now, you’re just being biased because you want him to stay right where he is.” Mama chuckled, deep and husky. He was enjoying her contemplative look, way too mature for her years, immensely. “If he could actually put down everything here and set his mind to it, he’d be a great leader. He led us soldiers into a death fight and brought at least some of us out, after all.”

                “But he almost died doing it. He’d be the king that overworks himself and dies by forty.”

                “In his case, maybe two hundred, but I get your point.” Mama rubbed her hair, just like that man did, but more forcefully. Mama never treated her like a little girl, or a princess. She leaned into his hand happily.

                Her place was here, with Mama, in this cottage, or wherever their latest mission brought them. And Papa visiting on weekends, or whenever he could find the time. Nothing would change. She wouldn’t let it. Except for a couple things.

                The next time she met those Dai Shimaron men, she was standing behind Prince Shinri as his little bodyguard. Oh, and from then onwards, she wouldn’t let anyone call her princess or Your Highness.

                She was many things, but her father would never be a king, so she would never be a princess.

**Author's Note:**

> So I realized I completely forgot to address the Belar/Weller plot point, and how that would affect Julie haha... So think of this as Julie's answer to the question Conrad has been struggling with, and let's just say having half of Josak's blood makes it easier for her to decide~


End file.
